Peter DeBoer’s teams have won all nine Game 7s he’s coached — which is a good thing, because any chance his New York Islanders have of making the playoffs will rely on them winning their two remaining regular-season games and then getting plenty of help.
The Islanders will attempt to stave off elimination Sunday evening in Elmont, N.Y., when they meet the Montreal Canadiens in a battle of Eastern Conference rivals.
Both teams will complete back-to-back sets after losing at home Saturday. The Islanders’ postseason hopes were damaged with a 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators while the playoff-bound Canadiens missed a chance to move into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division following a 5-2 setback to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The defeat to the Senators eliminated the Islanders (43-32-5, 91 points) from the wild-card race and ensured their only path to the playoffs is outlasting the Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals for the third and final postseason spot in the Metropolitan Division.
But that path got much more difficult later Saturday thanks to wins by the Blue Jackets, Capitals and Flyers.
The Islanders now are behind the Flyers (94 points), Blue Jackets (92) and Capitals (91) in the division. Washington has the regulation-wins tiebreaker over New York.
The Islanders would be eliminated with one more regulation loss or one more win by the Flyers, who are off Sunday before hosting the Carolina Hurricanes, the Metropolitan Division champion, on Monday.
New York, which played its second game under DeBoer on Saturday following the firing of Patrick Roy as coach on April 5, has the regulation-wins tiebreaker over Philadelphia but has one fewer regulation win than Columbus.
“Our season didn’t end today, as tough as that feels walking out of that rink today,” DeBoer said before the results of the Blue Jackets, Capitals and Flyers games were known. “We’ve got to be prepared to take care of our business, which is win the last two games. If someone is going to beat us out of that last playoff spot, then we’ve got to make them earn it.”
A rare loss for the Canadiens (47-23-10, 104 points) made it a little easier for the Buffalo Sabres or Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Atlantic Division.
Montreal, which has won eight of its last 10 games, fell into a tie for second place with the Lightning (104 points), who beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 earlier Saturday. The Canadiens also missed a chance to tie the idle Buffalo Sabres (106 points) atop the division.
The Sabres and Lightning each have the regulation-wins tiebreaker over the Canadiens. Buffalo and Tampa Bay will return to action Monday with games against the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings, respectively.
“Emotionally, it’s been a lot of ups recently, but we can’t just sit on that,” said Canadiens center Jake Evans, who had an assist Saturday. “We have to keep going because we obviously want home ice and to play here more in the playoffs.”
